Not Exactly Golden Slippers and Enchanted Doves
by annicaspoon
Summary: Your typical 'based off Cinderella' story. Sorta. Pairings will be obvious. Please R & R.
1. Sunday Afternoon

**Getting this up earlier than I planned, but hey, it's about bloody time.**

** I know it's been done a million times, but I've never tried it before, the plotline is the same as Cinderella (more so off the Grimm Brother's version, i.e. the one that is less known). But although everyone will know the main plot, there are other sub-plot and deeper issues that I put through in this story, so please don't be turned off by the fact that it's based off Cinderella.**

**Pairings will be obvious, so I won't tell you.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or Cinderella**

******Sunday Afternoon (And So It Begins)**

_Kori_

_Family. You live with them. You grow up with them. Every family is different. Every family has its issues. Single parent families, foster families, extended families. They all have their own problems, their own skeletons in the closet; secrets hidden from each other, but that shouldn't matter, right? They're still your family, however much you don't get along. Family, parents, siblings, they all stick together; they all care for each other, right?_

_Not exactly._

Kori Tam'ran's uncle picked up his briefcase from the bench and pecked her on the cheek. "Sorry I have to leave honey, but someone's got to keep this business on track." He looked Kori and her older sister, Mandy. "Don't forget school term starts tomorrow, will you two be alright to get there in the morning?"

"We'll be fine Galvin," Mandy spat, "We're not babies." She looked at Kori. "I'm not at least," she muttered. Kori looked at her sister sorrowfully as Galvin walked towards the door.

"I should be back on Wednesday night, but I'll give you a call. Look after each other, have fun at school." He walked out the door and the sisters heard his car pull out of the driveway and drive off.

Mandy stood up from her position on the couch and picked up her handbag. "Well, that's my cue to leave," she sighed and looked at Kori, "you know, you should really clean up the house," she said and pulled on a pair of boots at the door. "It's awfully untidy."

Kori sighed and looked down. It was starting. Since the car accident that had killed their parents and younger brother, Mandy had taken it upon herself to send Kori around as a servant, and their uncle Galvin was away for days at end, busy trying to keep the family business running to notice how serious the problem was. So whenever he was away, Kori became Mandy's personal slave.

"I'll be back later. Be a sweetie and make sure dinner's ready and hot for me by the time I'm home." She walked out the door and hopped into her car.

"Wait!" Kori followed her out the door. "I don't know what time you will be home!"

"Have fun little sister!" Mandy started the engine and sped off.

"I doubt that I will have much fun," Kori said softly as she walked back inside and faced the tasks ahead of her.

OoO

The sleek black car weaved in and out through the windy mountain roads. As it drove along, the forested area surrounding slowly started to melt away into a small town. It wasn't far into the town that the car passed a sign; _Welcome to Jump. We are a tidy town; _and Richard Grayson, sitting behind the wheel of the car, turned and grimaced to his sister Rachel.

Rachel however, was taking no notice; too busy glowering as the road ahead of them. Her long black hair fell over her face and her iPod blasted in her ears as Richard drove them through the town towards their new house.

The car turned off onto an older road, and moved along towards some large properties. It turned off again onto a long gravel driveway and soon pulled up in front of a huge, old farmhouse.

Richard and Rachel both looked up at the house as they sat in the car, neither of them willing to get out. Their adoptive father, Bruce Wayne, saw them arrive and walked over with a grin on his face.

"She's a beauty isn't she?" He commented as he leant against the car. Receiving no reply from the teens, he tried again. "You two excited?"

"Ecstatic," Rachel muttered, opening the car door and stepping out. Richard followed her lead and began hauling boxes out of the boot. Already, he preferred Gotham to this place.

Bruce walked off to help move things inside. As Richard looked on, he tried to figure out why one of the richest men in the world would want to pack up and move to rinky-dink town like this in the mountains. The nearest, proper, city was an hour away, and Gotham city, where they used to live, was eight long hours away.

He directed his attention to the farmhouse, and honestly, it looked like it was going to fall down any second. The red paint on the outside walls was peeling off, and the boards on the front porch needed a good oiling.

Richard leant over to Rachel, "When did they say this house was built again?" he asked, but got no answer. Rachel was ignoring him (well, actually, ignoring everyone), and he knew from experience that this meant she was pissed and should be left alone.

They started to take to boxes up to the front door, while the movers rushed around about them. Two guys carrying an old trunk came up and addressed the kids.

"Hey your dad told me that this trunk belong to you kids. Either of you want it in your rooms?" Richard stiffened and Rachel's eyes shot up as they answered at the same time.

"No!" They both replied quickly, and the man raised an eyebrow in confusion. Richard stepped in quickly. "Just, put it in the spare room," he said while Rachel rapidly moved away, "it'll be fine there." The movers nodded and carried the trunk inside.

The butler, Alfred, appeared at the front door and gestured for the kids to come inside. The inside of the house was the complete opposite of the outside, being sleek, modern and not at all, falling apart. Richard's jaw dropped, and even Rachel couldn't help raising her eyebrows a bit.

Alfred noticed their expressions and chuckled. "A bit different from what you expected, is it?"

"Just a bit," Richard mumbled as they walked further inside. Alfred chuckled again and began pointing out different sections of the house. "Kitchen, dining and living rooms, Bruce's office, spare bathroom and," he looked at Richard, "the gym, are all downstairs. Upstairs are all the bedrooms and two other bathrooms." He directed them upstairs and took them to their bedrooms, across from each other down one end of the hall.

"Hopefully," he said after, "you two will be able to find yourselves at home here. It's a change, but-"

"A big change," Rachel said softly, sitting on the hallway floor. Richard kicked her.

"But, Bruce really wants you two to be happy here, and free from all the stresses and problems," here he looked at Rachel, "you had in Gotham. So do you think you'll be able to adapt to the changes without too many troubles?"

"I think Bruce is the one who's going to find it hard to adapt here," Richard grinned. Rachel smirked and nodded.

"It won't be too long before he starts to miss the women of the city," she added in, and Alfred couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Yes," he snickered, "but let's keep those thoughts between us, alright?" The teen nodded and he walked off, leaving them outside their rooms.

Richard's bedroom faced the front view of the house, while Rachel's faced the backyard. Just outside Rachel's window stood a large oak tree, which, if you sat on the windowsill, was easily reachable, and climbable.

To prove this fact, Richard opened her window and scaled down the tree, before climbing back up like a ninja and coming back in through the window. "You're not going to try and escape now, are you?" he grinned and Rachel rolled her eyes. They both walked into his room and looked out the window at the chaos going on down below.

Richard pointed out a brunette lady and a blonde teenage boy out the front talking to Bruce. When he asked who they were, Rachel raised an eyebrow at him.

"I've been here fifteen minutes. Do you really think I know?"

Richard ignored her comment and kept watching the conversation. "Bruce said that there was another rich couple on the next property. It might be them. Apparently they've also got a kid our age." He turned around to face Rachel but found that she had gotten bored of his aloud musing and left the room.

Shrugging, he walked downstairs and outside. Bruce motioned for him to come over and join. "Where's Rach?" he asked. Richard shrugged and Bruce frowned. "Don't tell me you've lost her already."

Richard scowled, "I didn't _lose_ her, she just disappeared" his gaze moved to the two visitors, "like she always does."

Bruce shook his head, "Richard, this is Rita Dayton and her son Garfield. They live on the property next to us." The brunette lady smiled warmly and shook Richard's hand.

"It's nice to meet you," she said and Richard nodded. His eyes then moved to a boy slightly younger than him, with dishevelled blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. "Hey man," the boy said as he stuck out his hand, "I'm Gar."

"Rich." Bruce turned to Richard.

"The Dayton's have invited us over for a barbeque tonight." Gar perked up and nudged Richard. "We also have a nice healthy salad for the vegetarians in the house," he said, and from the expression on his face, Richard could easily tell that he was the vegetarian.

"So once we get this stuff inside and find your sister, we go over there," Bruce finished, and Rita and Gar began to make their way back to their car. "See ya later!" Gar yelled from the car as they drove off.

OoO

A few hours later (after the mess outside had been moved inside and Rachel had reappeared), Bruce, Alfred, Richard and Rachel walked over to the Dayton's property, since Bruce had decided it would be a good idea to go for a nice, leisurely walk and look at their surroundings (even though Rachel pointed out they would be seeing enough of it already). The Dayton mansion was very different to theirs; for one, it actually looked expensive on the outside, and just as nice inside.

The barbeque was out the back of the mansion. While the adults talked over the table, Gar talked to Richard, and Rachel continued being her unsociable self, listening to her iPod.

"So what years are you in?" he asked after Richard told him that they were going to the local high school.

"I'm a junior, Rachel's a sophomore," Richard replied, "and you're a…"

"Sophomore," he smiled over at Rachel, "I could show you around and help you make friends."

Rachel glanced up at him. Did he ever stop smiling? "I'll be fine without your help thanks." Gar's face fell for a moment, but then he shrugged. "The offer's always there," he said, grinning once again.

Richard looked from him to Steve and Rita, "So you're adopted, aren't you?" He guessed, and Gar nodded.

"Yep. Like you guys. My real parents were biologists in Africa, and that's where Rita found me," he shrugged, "I think a lot of rich people just like to adopt kids, you know." His eyes glazed over for a moment as he drifted in nostalgia. "But anyway, what do you want to know about Jump? This place is so tiny I know everything about it."

"What facilities are there here?" Richard asked, "We didn't see a lot when we drove in."

"Yeah, you have to go a bit further down that road before you're actually in town," Gar replied. "There's not a lot here though. The primary school, middle school and high school, the main supermarket and a couple of other shops. Rita has formal dress shop close to the supermarket. Other than those though, there's not a lot."

Rachel was now paying attention, leaning slightly forward in her seat. "Is there a book shop?" She asked Gar, who shook his head.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p', "we don't even have a town library, only a library at our school." Rachel's gaze flitted over to Richard.

"I'm. In. Hell." She uttered, and Gar laughed.

"It might seem like that now, but soon you'll…" he trailed off as he realised that she had now gotten up and was talking to Bruce. Gar shot a questioning look towards Richard, who sighed.

"She likes her books," he told Gar, "but we had to get rid of a lot to move, and besides, she's read them all anyway." Gar moved his mouth in an 'O' shaped and nodded. Rachel shortly came back and picked up her phone and iPod.

"I'm going back," she announced to the boys. Gar smiled at her.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," he said, grinning from ear to ear. Rachel glanced up at him before walking off. "Yeah, maybe," she muttered and Gar looked again at Richard.

"She…always like that?" Richard watched after his sister, frowning.

"Something happened not long before we heard we were moving," he explained. "She's just dealing with it, in her own way."

OoO

The clock flipped over to 11:54pm as Kori waited. She had to be coming home soon. They were going to school tomorrow, and Mandy wouldn't miss that. School was her kingdom. There was no way she would miss the first day of term.

Kori's thoughts were soon answered as she heard the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway. She quickly pressed the button on the microwave and reheated Mandy's dinner.

The said person stumbled through the door, swearing continually under her breath. She threw her handbag towards the couch, missing by a mile and then collapsed down on the couch herself (this, she did not miss however). The microwave soon beeped and Kori took the plate over to her intoxicated sister.

"There you are Mandy," Kori said politely, "I hope you enjoy it." Mandy just glared at the plate in her hands, before she exploded in drunken fury.

"What the fuck!" She yelled, throwing the plate off to the side. "What is this shit? I didn't want this!" Kori cowered where she was. "Get the fuck away from me you dirty thing! I don't want you here! Nobody wants you here! Mum and Dad didn't even fuckin want you!" And with that, she slapped the younger girl over the face, before slumping back down on the couch.

Seemingly calmer, she opened her eyes and her bloodshot orbs faced the red headed girl sobbing in front of her. "Clean that up," she ordered, "and then when you're done, I want some _proper_ dinner. Not that disgusting pasta shit you made." Kori nodded.

"Yes," she whimpered.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes…ma'am."

"Good girl."

_And worst thing about family, no matter what you want, no matter how much it hurts or how much you despise it, you have to be loyal to them._

_Because they're family._

_OoO_

**Yeah, it gets a bit intense in that last bit.**

**I can't write Bruce or Alfred well, so sorry if they're not what you hoped they'd be. And sorry to Cyborg fans too, I won't lie to you, he doesn't get a really big part in this story (he's in there, but sort of drowned out by everyone else)**

**Please review! It makes me happy!**


	2. First Day

**So I forgot to make this clear before, but Mandy is Blackfire. Blackfire's alien name is Komand'r and I didn't want to have Komi and Kori so I used Mandy for her instead. There will be some others names mentioned in this chapter especially so if anyone gets confused just ask 8)**

**Disclaimer: Wish I did, but I don't own Teen Titans**

**OoO**

**First Day (Stereotypical Ways)**

_Rachel_

_Schools are all the same. Divided into different cliques, groups of the same tastes. Cheerleaders, jocks, skaters, posers, the list goes on and on. Out of all the schools I've gone to, nothing has ever been different, they're all the same._

_Or, so I thought._

_Turns out a country high school with 300 kids spread across four grades is a lot different to the normal, cliché high schools that are in books and movies. Jump High, in this shitty town that was only allowed four letters of the alphabet, is completely different to all those other schools._

_Everyone here knows each other. There are no set groups. Sure, people have their own circle of friends, but those circles mingle here. Even people in separate years can have a conversation about anything. New students are welcomed right away. _

_Which, contrary to what a lot of people would think, is a huge problem for me._

"Hey Rae!" Rachel suppressed a sigh of annoyance as she walked through the office doors. "Hey Rachel, wait up!" She turned around and found Garfield Dayton barely an inch away from her. He grinned and took a step backwards.

"I thought I already told you that I don't want your help making friends," Rachel told him as she walked towards the halls. Her eyes skimmed along the walls at the lockers, looking for her number.

"I'm not going to help you make friends," Gar shrugged, "I'll just be your friend." Rachel rolled her eyes and kept looking for her number.

"I don't need you to be my friend," she muttered.

"Nah, but you want me to." Rachel kept her eyes away. Gar noticed them flitting around and grinned. "What number?"

"I don't need your help."

"So you'd prefer to be late for class and get a detention on your first day rather than let me help you find you locker?" Gar asked, "Just tell me the number."

Rachel sighed, "One hundred and thirty eight," she muttered. Gar thought for a moment, before nodding and pulling Rachel off to the right.

It wasn't long before she was standing in front of the locker labelled '138'. She raised an eyebrow at Garfield before unlocking the door. "You found that awfully quick," she murmured to him as she started piling her books inside.

"Yeah, I knew the person who used to own it. Knew them pretty well," he rubbed the back of his neck and waved to some other people in the hall. A couple of tall, jock-like guys came up and gave him hi fives as they walked past. To Rachel, it seemed like he knew a lot of the people in the school very well.

"How popular are you?" Rachel asked softly, as she watched the guys walk down the hall.

"I wouldn't say popular," Gar said, "Everyone pretty much knows everything about each other in this town, and you probably know what people are like when they know you've got money." He looked down the hall, "Some people will do anything to be your friend." He shrugged and grinned at Rachel, "What do you have first?" She was about to open her mouth tell him again that she did not want or need his help when she thought better of it. She passed Gar her schedule and he fished his own out of his pocket. As she looked at them, she saw that they had quite a few classes together, but that was most likely due to the limited number of people in their year.

"So you have language arts first," Gar said and pointed to her left. "Follow the hall to the right then it's the second door on the right. There's photocopies of poems tacked all over the door."

Rachel nodded and started to walk down the hall. Gar smiled after her, "I'll see you round classes then. Maybe at lunch or after school too." But he was shunned as Rachel had turned around and focussed on getting to class.

oOo

Richard unfortunately, had not had the same amount of luck as his sister, and was left to find his locker and first class by himself. Because of this, he was late to class, and although the teacher (a balding, wizened old man who called himself Mr Pots) let him off the hook, Richard was still left with having to sit in the only remaining seat in the class.

As he sat in the spare seat, next to a beautiful redhead, Mr Pots started to speak. "Now as the usual system goes, these will be your seats for the remainder of the term," he said, walking around the room, "so get comfortable."

Richard turned to the girl next to him. "Hey I'm-" A large wrinkly hand slammed down on his desk, causing him to jump. "Name, please." Mr Pots asked, towering over Richard.

"Richard Grayson," he spat out, "sir."

"Grayson. I accept you may be late to class on your first day, but I will not accept you talking and disrupting my class during a lesson." Richard nodded and heard a few sniggers around the class. Mr Pots also heard these sniggers, and immediately directed his attention to those creating them.

Richard felt something brush up against his arm and looked down. A folded piece of paper was resting next to his hand. He opened it and looked at the written message inside.

_**Pots isn't the teacher to have around if you want a conversation.**_

The girl in the next seat smiled at him, her green eyes shining. Richard grinned and wrote back.

**Wish you told me that earlier.**

_**I'm Kori.**_

**Rich. **

_**This your first day?**_

**Yeah. Only got into town yesterday.**

_**Your parents didn't even give you a chance to settle in?**_

**I live with my adoptive dad. He thought it would be 'great' to get into the school routine as quick as possible, so he sent me and my sister to school the day after we arrived.**

_**Lucky you.**_

Richard bit back a smile and the girl turned her attention to the teacher. The algebra that Pots was writing on the board Richard had already learnt, so he drew his gaze back to the girl Kori.

As she was sitting down, he couldn't be entirely sure, but she looked like she was quite tall, his height or possibly even higher, with tan skin. Wavy red hair fell down to her waist and her eyes, a bright, lime-green colour shone out from her face. Richard quickly pulled his eyes away before she noticed and started completing the exercises they were given.

He soon felt the paper brush up against his arm again, and he opened it up.

_**If you don't mind me asking…you said adoptive dad…?**_

Richard's breath hitched in his throat. It was going to be asked by someone soon enough.

**My parents were killed when I was nine**

He handed the paper over to Kori and saw her turn and look at him sorrowfully.

_**I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. My parents and younger brother died when I was young too. I live with my uncle and my sister now. I'm sorry.**_

**It's not your fault. I'm sorry too. About your family.**

They sat in awkward silence for a while. The silence of the rest of the room made it even more awkward of a moment, before Richard picked up his pen again and scrawled something down.

**So you wouldn't know where room A16 is would u?**

Kori smiled and nodded.

_**Bottom floor of the 2 storey building. Middle room.**_

**Thanks.**

_**No problem**_

oOo

After a slow two hours, lunch finally came, and Richard was faced with the task of finding a place to eat. Besides Kori in his Math class first period, and a few randoms in second period, he hadn't gotten the chance to get to know anyone well enough for an invite into a lunch group, and everyone knew that you don't ask to join a group. You have to wait to be invited.

So to explain it simply, he was going to be a loner at lunch.

Rachel had the whole loner act nailed, mainly because she just didn't like people, but Rich had made a point not to experience it too much in his life. He could deal with being alone, he sometimes even preferred it, what he couldn't handle was the stares and whispers you got from other when you were alone. He wasn't able to block out the rest of the world like his sister, he wasn't able to ignore the looks you got when you were the 'new kid'.

He sat near the oval and watched a group of boys huddle together in the middle of the footy field. A tall, built African-american stood in the middle, throwing a football from hand to hand. He laughed and patted the back of a leaner guy of the same height with shoulder length black hair. The other guy ran over a group near Richard.

"Roy you laze-arse," He said to a redhead guy lounging against a tree, "East verse west game. Get up and play."

Roy looked up from the mirror in his hand, "Garth man, I just gelled my hair. No way am I gonna play." He crossed his arms and Garth looked down on him.

"Come on man, they've got Gar and Wally on their team, we need someone who would at least have a chance running them down."

"No."

"Great! You're coming!" Garth grabbed Roy's arm and dragged him onto the field. Richard raised an eyebrow and was about to go back to eating before Gar came over to him.

"Dude! Rich, you know how to play football right?" Richard shrugged. "I guess…"

"Awesome! We're playing seven-aside, need someone to join. Wanna play?" Rich nodded and got up. As annoying as Gar was, Rich had to thank him later for the invite. As they walked onto the field, Gar started explaining.

"There's an east side and a west side of Jump, we're on the west side. Whenever we want to play something, we always go in teams of our side of town."

"Why don't you pick different teams each time?" Gar shook his head.

"Too hard. This way we always know what team we're on." They came up to one of the huddles, with the tall dark guy with the footy standing at the head. The guy named Garth was standing at the head of the other huddle, the east team. Gar introduced Richard to the west team as they arrived.

"Are you sure he's from the west side Green Bean?" The tall guy asked. Gar bristled.

"Dude, don't call me that! And yes I'm sure! He lives down the road from me!" Gar turned to Richard. "This is Victor Stone, school captain and freakishly good at sports." Victor held out his hand.

"Everyone calls me Vic," he said, "So can we just call you Dick?"

Richard nodded, "Sure."

"Alright then. Where do you play?"

It was this point where Dick realised he didn't really play that much football. He had played a bit of soccer back at Gotham, but football was only ever muck-up games. "Um…is attack good?"

"Attack is fine. You're up the front with me then. Gar and Wally on the wings and the last three up the back for defence." They all got in their positions and faced the east team. Garth and Roy were up the front facing Dick and Vic.

"Tag only?" Vic asked Garth, who nodded.

"You got it." They didn't flip to choose ends, or to pick which team got the ball first, instead Vic tapped it and passed it straight to Dick, and the game was officially on.

As they played, Richard found that there wasn't a lot of experience throughout the fourteen players, but instead a cocktail of various talents. Vic was the standout by far, and Dick could easily see that he was the one who knew what he was doing. Garth wasn't too bad either, but it was clear to Dick that football wasn't his natural sport. Roy just had pure aggression, but his passes and kicks were always right smack on target. Wally, Richard noticed, was super quick on his feet, and Gar, while not as good as dodging as Wally, once he got a clear space, he could break away from the other players in no time. The two wings also proved themselves to be really good at chasing down the other players and stray kicks or passes.

One of these times was shown when Garth attempted to pass the ball to one of his wings, but found it intercepted by Gar. The older boy immediately tried to chase down Gar, but he had sped off and quickly passed it off to Wally, who set it down as a try.

"That's right fish-man," Gar said as he danced around Garth, "You may be quick in the water, but on land, I got you beat!"

"Hey Gar," Wally said, walking over.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

They were soon two tries even, with only a few minutes left of lunch. Wally nudged Dick and pointed to the sidelines. "Looks like the queen bee and her fan club have arrived to enjoy the show." Dick looked over at the group of good-looking, made-up girls, giggling and winking as they watched the group of sweaty topless guys on the field.

"Hey guys! Quit thinking with your cocks and use your brains for a second!" Vic yelled at them. He gave a quick wave to a blonde standing over with the girls and faced his team.

"Like you can talk rockhead," Roy yelled from the other side, "Quit having eye sex with your girlfriend." Garth slapped him over the head. "You're just jealous Roy."

Vic ignored the comments coming from the guys on the east team and made a team huddle. Richard could definitely see him becoming the captain of a state football team in the next few years. "We got one more point to get in this last minute or two. Any ideas?" The other guys looked back blankly at him, before Richard spoke up.

"You could swap me with Wally."

"What?" Richard crouched down and started drawing in the dirt.

"Put me out on the wing and get Wally in the front. Vic taps off and passes straight to Wally, who darts through the middle, drawing the fire of both their attackers and their wings. He'll make it through easily, and then pass to Gar, who can sprint and make it mostly around their defenders. I'll be sticking close by, so he can pass straight to me and I'll be able to go in there easily with no players in my way." He looked up and winced at the blank looks being given to him. Vic looked down at his diagram and nodded.

"Man, that could definitely work. Let's try it." They ran out of their huddle and took their new positions.

"Dick, man, I so hope this works," Wally muttered as he swapped places with him, "otherwise we're gonna look like, well, dicks." Richard didn't laugh at the play on his name, but nodded solemnly.

"Me too, Wally."

They faced off, and before the east team got a chance to figure out their swap, Vic tapped and passed the ball to Wally. Wally ran straight in between Garth and Roy, leaving them bewildered, and set upon dodging the wings. Gar, closing in from the right wing moved close enough to Wally to ensure a safe pass. Wally passed it to him and he took off to the left and circled around the defenders. Dick sprinted towards him, trying to get close enough, and Gar, seeing that he himself was about to be tapped, launched a pass towards him. Dick caught it, fumbled a bit, before running to the line with the ball safely in his hands and setting it down behind the line and rolling on the grass. Gar tumbled after him and dragged him to his feet, with Wally, Vic and the others patting his back.

"Dude! That was epic!" Gar shouted in his ear, and Dick winced.

"Yeah Dick, that was awesome." Garth said, walking up to them, "Did you think of that?" Richard rubbed the back of his neck.

"Um, yeah. I'm good at that kind of stuff."

"You know how to play too," Vic said, "They're picking the school team next week. I can bet you anything if you try out, you'll get in."

"And Vic could totally put in a good word for ya, couldn't you Vic?" Wally nudged Vic.

"Definitely," Vic nodded. "We could use talent like you, rather than slackers like Roy here." Roy mumbled something intelligible, but everyone else ignored him. As they walked over to the sidelines, Garth moved up to Richard.

"So you're in junior year, right?" He said casually and Rich nodded. "I'm a senior like Vic, but Wally and Roy are both in your year. You can come hang with us during lunches too. Not all of them are spent like this, I'll tell you."

"Thanks," Dick replied, "I will." That went a lot easier than he thought it would. Garth smiled and got his stuff as Garfield came up to Richard.

"First day and already in with the alphadogs," he chuckled, "dude, you are sure doing well for yourself." They both pulled on their shirts as Roy passed around a can of deodorant.

"Dayton!" Gar's head yanked up at a group of boys of his age coming towards them. "Where the hell have you been man?" Vic walked up behind Gar.

"Looks like the sophomore clan are calling ya Greeny," he said quietly, "you might want to go now before they get vicious." Gar chuckled and started walking towards them.

"I'll see you guys 'round then."

"What the hell, Dayton? Why are you hanging 'round with the oldies." Richard heard one of Gar's friends whisper as they walked off. Gar said something along the lines of shut up and Richard faced the others.

Vic saw the curious expression on his face and shook his head. "Gar's mates don't like sharing." He said, "From what I've heard they're a pretty decent group of kids, but I think they need to give Green Beans a bit of leeway every now and then."

"Oh." The group of girls that had been watching walked over. A blonde girl went straight over to Vic and kissed him passionately. The rest of the guys groaned and started making comments and rude gestures towards the couple.

"Boys," A girl with black hair and tan skin walked over, "behave around the happy couple." She walked past and Dick noticed Roy's eyes travelling downwards.

Garth faced Dick. "This is Mandy Tam'ran. Downright the most popular girl in the school. And her friends Kitty, Karen, and of course, Vic's girlfriend Sarah." He pointed out a few of the other girls as Mandy came towards them.

"Richard, isn't it?" Dick nodded. "Great play up there. You're quite the strategist I hear." She winked and lowered her voice. "Nice body too. Haven't seen guns like that in a while." She walked off and Rich stared after her.

"Didn't take her long to hook him," Garth said to Vic, "all she's gotta do now is pull him in."

oOo

Kori came out of the girls' bathroom, carrying her things. She couldn't trust anyone to leave them alone when she had to go anywhere, so if she was called to the office, wanted to buy lunch or had a bladder problem, she had to take her bag and anything else she had with her.

Because who knew what would happen to them if she left them unsupervised.

Like the spot she was sitting in to have lunch.

It was now occupied, by none other than her sister's best friend Kitty and her hideous boyfriend Fang (who knew what his real name was), looking at a various amount of items that no doubt Fang had stolen for his girlfriend. They were making out over the very spot that Kori had been eating at. Kitty glanced up, looked Kori up and down, and snorted.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Kori ducked her head and turned around, looking for a new place to sit. That was the problem with most isolated spots in the school.

Lovers liked to use them.

That was one of the free spots that Kori had found during that lunch. Not so free anymore, and chances were all the other 'secret spaces' were still in use. They tended to be for the whole of the lunch.

Kori checked her watch. There were still twenty minutes left of lunch, and she couldn't just stand in the same spot for that long. She walked towards the library. She knew it wouldn't be open, but she could still hope, right? They might have changed the days that the library opened up at lunch. It might have been changed to a Monday.

It hadn't. Times were still the same as usual. Open during classes and Wednesday and Thursday lunches. No Monday.

It was worth a try. Kori thought so at least. She walked around the side pathway of the library, a cramped spot in between the brick wall of the library and one of the numerous gardens. Although this garden was in desperate need of some TLC.

The path was barely used anymore, because most of the bushes had overgrown and if you were really talented, you were able to get your hair or bag caught in them. The potheads or lovers of the school didn't use it for special time either, because, despite it's prime location (seriously though, no-one would ever get caught there), there was no telling what you could get tangled up in those bushes.

Kori set her bag down on the ground and moved some branches out of the way. She was about to sit down when she saw that the place wasn't as empty as she thought. Another girl, one she didn't recognise, was sitting in the bark, leaning against one of the trees with a book and a pencil in her hands. She was wearing dark jeans and a dark blue hoodie. Long black hair fell over her pale face and down almost to her waist, with a single purple streak. Kori didn't say anything, but continued to sit down.

The dry leaves crackled as her but came to rest on the ground, and the dark-haired girl looked up. Her violet eyes met Kori's own for a second, and Kori opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she said, "This area looked empty and I did not realise someone was already here and…" The dark girl raised an eyebrow. "Is it okay if I sit here?"

The girl shrugged and her eyes moved back down to her book. "You already are."

"Oh…" Kori looked down, "I can move if that will make you happier, I don't want to bother you."

"Too late." The girl looked up at Kori's face and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't care. Unless there's some sort of idiot rule in this school, I'm pretty sure it's okay for you to sit here."

"Oh, okay." The girl went back to drawing in her book and Kori picked at her fingernails. She then moved on to fiddling with her hair, unpacking her bag, repacking her bag and playing with her phone.

After a good ten minutes passed before Kori opened her mouth again. "So…"

"My name's Rachel Roth, I'm a sophomore, yes I'm new to town, no I'm not looking for any friends and in fact I'm here hiding from someone who does want to be my friend and no, I am not going to give you the big sob story of my life." The girl said emotionlessly, still drawing. "I'm guessing you were going to ask my name?"

"Uh…"

"I guessed right."

"I'm Kori Tam'ran," Kori said, "I'm in junior year; I have no friends because my sister makes sure I don't get any and I don't think I'll tell you my life story either." The girl Rachel looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Was she surprised or impressed? She kept staring, and Kori soon got uncomfortable. "What?"

Rachel frowned, "Just differences."

"Differences?" Kori shifted in her spot. "What do you mean differences?"

"Where I'm from, girls like you are typically head cheerleaders and the most popular people in the school." Rachel tilted her head to the side. "Just trying to figure out why you aren't."

A giggling was heard off in the distance and Rachel gave Kori a quick suspicious look before putting her head down and pulling her hood up. Mandy, Kitty and most of the other girls in their evil clique walked up and started pulling out smokes. Mandy spotted Kori and sauntered over.

"Well, well little sis," She drew in a long puff of the cigarette on her hands before continuing, "What are _you_ doing here?" Kori looked down at her feet. "Are you sure you have clearance to be sitting here?"

"Does she have clearance to even exist?" Kitty spat, before taking a drag of her own.

"Shut up Kit, no-one asked you," Mandy threw her cigarette at her 'best friend'. Ignoring the yelp from the blonde girl, and turned back to Kori. "I really think you should find somewhere else to sit, little sister." They was she said 'little', it was so demeaning, each and every time. Kori doubted Mandy could even remember her name.

"There's nowhere else," Kori muttered. Mandy walked back to her friends and grabbed another cigarette. As Kori waited, she could feel Rachel's eyes taking in everything that was going on.

Rachel's gaze flitted around the group. She watched Kori's so-called sister, and clearly the leader of the group walk up to a blonde girl in the group trying to pressure her into having a smoke.

"No Mandy, I'm fine." The blonde stepped back, "I promise Vic I'd stay off that stuff."

"Jesus Christ, Sarah," Mandy snarled, "We're the ones that are supposed to get the men whipped, not the other way around. Besides, it's not like he'll ever find out." Sarah shook her head and Mandy walked back towards Kori.

"Listen, sister," She hissed, "No-one finds out about this alright? Because if they do, I'm sure mum and dad are going to be _very _upset." Kori nodded and Mandy looked back up.

And saw Rachel.

"Oh, you've found a _friend_ now have you Kori?" Mandy stepped up towards Rachel. "What are you doing sitting here?"

Rachel narrowed her eyes. "Didn't realise I had to pay at a meter to park," she deadpanned, and Mandy bent down.

"You're a funny girl."

"I'm the life of the party." Mandy's fists clenched, and Rachel smirked inwardly. Years of pissing Richard off had definitely rubbed off on her.

"Look, Little Miss Gothica," Mandy snarled, "you really don't want to disobey me."

"Why? Are you the queen or something?"

"Don't mess with me you little bitch," Mandy hissed dangerously. Rachel had to stop herself from letting her own temper loose.

"I wouldn't dream of it," she said coolly.

Mandy stepped back, gave a quick glare to Rachel, and turned around. She walked back past Kori and their whole group drifted off. Kori and Rachel sat in silence.

"So. Who's the stuck up bitch?" Rachel deadpanned.

"Mandy. Most popular girl in the school and pretty much the whole town as well. She's a senior and she's my older sister." Kori sighed.

"Sucks to be you." Kori looked at Rachel, and saw a flicker of almost pity, before she went back to her cold demeanour and continued drawing.

_Wait. A bitchy queen bee who picks on the minorities to make herself feel good?_

_Scrap that, this school is exactly the same as all the others._

**OoO**

**Yeah. A lot longer than the first chapter. Hope you enjoy. Please review.**

**~Clair-Rae**


	3. So Much In So Little Time

**I wasn't going to post this till later this week, but I don't feel like doing my bio assignment, and this is my procrastination attempt. This one is again pretty damn long.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't be still stuck in school, so no, I don't**

**OoO**

**So Much in So Little Time (It's The Snowball Effect)**

_Richard_

_Rachel and I have always been under the impression that popularity is overrated. Maybe because our screwed-up lives have made us appreciate other things more than being the most popular person in your school or town. It was easy for me to think that though, because I had never really experienced it. And it was easy for Rachel to say that too, because the only time she was popular ended in a really bad way._

_But it's true, isn't it? Popularity is overrated, isn't it?_

_I'm starting to think it isn't._

It's always said that time lasts an eternity when you're a kid. A lot can happen in one day in the life of a teenager. And in those first two weeks of term, a shit load of stuff happened.

Richard found himself fitting right in with the large group of boys and girls from both the junior and senior years, and in every class he had someone from that group, Wally, Roy or someone else, to talk to (except in Maths, where talking was forbidden. That class he spent writing messages to Kori). He also learnt a lot about his new friends in that small amount of time.

Vic was no doubt the leader. Even though he never admitted it, everyone asked him when it came to, well, everything. He was also inseparable from Sarah, and they spent most of their time holding hands or whispering to each other.

Garth was another one of the leader type people, although he was far more passive than Vic. Rich also noticed that he was the 'dream boy' of his year, yet still single.

Roy was arrogant and vain, and he was almost always butting heads with Karen Beecher, a pretty African-american with a lot of attitude. At first Dick thought that it was just playful banter, but he soon saw that they were in no way, 'playing'.

Wally didn't only run fast, he did everything fast, and this sometimes got him into a bit of trouble, especially when it came to his flirty attitude to almost every girl in the school (although some girls he knew to stay clear from, like Sarah, who was Vic's girl, and Kitty, who was just plain freaky).

Kitty and Fang were the rebellious couple. They were constantly stealing, smoking, drinking and anything they could get away with. It was rumoured that Kitty had her father completely under her control, and got anything she wanted, and Dick had no doubt this was true. Along with everything else, the pair were constantly fighting, which to Dick's annoyance, seemed to bring Kitty to him.

And then there was Mandy.

Mandy was definitely the queen bee of the girls. She was always in control of herself and those around her. She was hot, smart and sexy, and Richard was finding himself being constantly drawn towards her. He spent much of his lunches having conversations with her and found her becoming a good friend of his, despite her being in the year above.

Another person he found himself getting close to was Kori. Their math classes were made up of written pieces of paper, on which they told each other their secrets, fears and so on. Richard brought up one day how strange their friendship was.

**Don't you think it's weird that we've told each other all this stuff about ourselves but we've never heard each other speak?**

_**Yeah. It's kinda bizarre, isn't it?**_

**Do you want to come over at lunch? I sit in Vic Stone's big group. We could talk then. **

Kori chewed the side of her lip, like she wanted to take up his offer but also didn't want to.

_**I can't at lunch. I'm sorry. Maybe after school?**_

**I've got football tryouts. **

_**Oh. Well maybe another time.**_

Richard nodded and smiled at her.

oOo

Rachel dropped down beside her tree and pulled her drawing book out of her bag. She frowned as she flipped through the pages. She really needed some books to read; almost two weeks of drawing during lunches had eaten up all her inspiration.

She had thought about looking in the school's library, but it was closed most lunches, and any other time she had tried to go in there, either a group of Mandy Tam'ran's bitches or Garfield Dayton was in there.

The blonde vegetarian was really getting on her nerves. He was continually hanging around her, trying to start a conversation or be a friend. Rachel knew he was only trying to be nice, and that was exactly the problem.

If she was nice back, it would start an actual friendship, and a friendship was and attachment, and Rachel couldn't have any attachments.

Attachments only ever led to getting hurt.

She had allowed herself to become close to Bruce, Rich and Alfred. They were family. But friendships, she couldn't make. She didn't do friendships.

Just like she didn't do happy, talkative, or flirty.

Definitely not flirty.

Footsteps began crunching through the leaves and Rachel frowned. For a shy girl, Kori was pretty loud. But then again, Rachel doubted she would be so shy and self-conscious if her sister wasn't such an evil bitch.

Kori sat down in her normal spot, looking unusually glum. Despite knowing she would regret it later; Rachel asked her what was wrong.

"There is a boy," Kori started slowly, and Rachel only just refrained from rolling her eyes. It was always about a boy. "He is very kind, and sweet and very, very handsome."

"And you like him but you don't think he likes you the same way." Rachel deadpanned. It was such a cliché problem.

"I'm not sure about him actually," Kori said, "He sits next to me in my maths class and we send notes to each other during the whole period." Rachel raised an eyebrow, "No talking is allowed in that class. He asked me if we should meet up and talk sometime. Actually talk."

"I'm not understanding what the problem is in this story," Rachel frowned. That was another reason why she didn't make friends. You get caught up in their lives and have to listen to the most insignificant, easily solvable complications in it. Especially love lives.

Kori looked up at her. "I was ready to meet up with him sometime, even this lunch but…" Rachel waited expectantly. "He's in my sister's group. If she finds out, she'll make sure he doesn't ever want to talk to me again."

Rachel nodded slowly and looked down at her hands. What was she supposed to say now? 'I'm sorry'? 'What a bitch'? She really wasn't the supportive type of person, and Kori was waiting for her to say something.

"Who's the boy?" She couldn't just brush her off. As cold as Rachel could try to be to anyone else, she had found in the past week that she was unable to be mean to Kori. Kori emitted a warmth, a kind of sweetness that even Rachel couldn't throw a bucket over.

"Richard Grayson," Kori said and Rachel froze. She frowned at Kori, utterly confused, and forgot about trying to be nice.

"Seriously?" She ran the thought through her mind. "Why?"

"You know Rich?" Kori asked, "But, he's in my year and he was only new to this school this term."

"He's my brother." Rachel frowned and folded her arms. Out of all the boys that Kori could've fallen for, why did she have to fall for Richard?

"But, your last names are different." Kori pointed out.

Rachel nodded and rolled her eyes. "We were both adopted by the same man. We kept our original last names. Rich was adopted when he was nine and I was adopted when I was eleven."

"So," Kori said quietly, "Does that mean your parents were killed too?" She asked the question cautiously, but still Rachel's eyes darkened.

"Something like that." She said quietly. She thought for a moment before facing Kori. "Why is my brother hanging around your sister?" Kori shrugged and Rachel shook her head. "Well that's just brilliant," she muttered, "my brother has become friends with the first-class bitch of the school. Perfect."

oOo

Rachel was lying on the lounge, her iPod blaring, when Dick got home. He grabbed a packet of pretzels from the kitchen, and, after pushing Rachel's legs off the lounge, sat down and started eating. "So," he said as Rachel pulled her earphones out of her ears, "how was school?"

"What do you think?" Rachel deadpanned. She grabbed a pretzel from the packet in Dick's hand. "But obviously something went well for you, considering your talkative mood." Her heavily made-up eyes rolled towards him. "So, what was it?"

"I got on the footy team."

"Not that much of a surprise. It's not like you've found it hard to get in any teams before." Richard glared at her.

"Why must you be a downer on my life?" Rachel shrugged and took another pretzel. They sat in silence for a while, until Rich thought of an idea.

"Hey, are you doing anything?" He asked. Rachel gave him a look as if to say 'really?' and replied.

"Does it look like I'm doing anything?"

"Do you want to help me go through the trunk?" Rachel eyes widened and she froze.

"What?" She whispered.

Rich broke away from her violet eyed gaze and looked down. "I was thinking I could go through it and find some gear of my dads. He played footy at school when he was our age and-"

"Richard, stop." Richard looked up at his sister's whisper. "We can't. I can't." Dick opened his mouth, but Rachel's hand quickly closed it again. "No, Rich. We made a deal. We locked everything in there for a reason. So we'd never have to see them again. Do you really expect me to be able to go through that stuff? Do you really think you'd be able to go through that stuff?"

"That's why I was hoping you'd be able to help me," Dick said quietly, "Because I know that I won't be able to do it alone. Please Rach." He smiled, "Maybe you'll be able to find something to read finally."

Rachel sighed. "We're only in there for that football gear you want. As soon as we find it, we lock that thing up, and we never go in it again, promise?"

"Promise," Rich said. Rachel only nodded. She stood up and walked to the kitchen, where she took a Milo tin from the pantry and opened it on the bench. From it she pulled out an old delicate key. Rich raised an eyebrow.

"When did we put it in there?" he asked.

"Alfred found it in the pillowcase when we were moving in and put it on top of the trunk," Rachel closed the tin and put it back in the pantry, "had to get rid of it before I decided to open that thing." She shifted her eyes away and walked out of the kitchen. "Come on." Richard followed her, trying to make sense of what she'd just said, but forgot about it as they walked into the spare room.

The mahogany trunk sat at the end of the guest bed, its carved-in vines casting harsh shadows in the afternoon light. On its lid was carved _J & M G_. The trunk had belonged to Richard's parents, and held mementos and pictures of his parents. When Rachel came into the house, she quickly filled with things of her mother's (since she had refused to take anything of her father's and threaten to burn anything social services had forced her take) and they made a pact that they would lock it up and never go back to the memories inside it.

Of course, nothing ever goes to plan.

Rachel stood against the wall, clearly uncomfortable at being near the trunk. She handed the key to Richard, who unlocked the padlock that held down the clasp. He took a deep breath in, and lifted the lid.

He was slightly taken aback at the amount of crap that he saw. "How much stuff did you put in here again?" He asked Rachel softly.

"Everything I had," Rich froze and glanced at her, "but it was almost full when I put my stuff in it anyway. You have a lot more stuff in there than you realise." She breathed deeply and walked towards the trunk. "Are you okay?" Dick asked her.

Rachel shrugged. "Let's just get this over with." She kneeled down in front of the trunk and started hauling stuff out. Richard joined her.

The first things that came out of the trunk were a heap of photo albums, which Rachel immediately pushed over to the side. After that came a lot of different things, varying from Richard's old baby clothes to cheques for high amounts of money to both of the kids. A pile of old memories was quickly made at the side of the room.

It seemed like an age before they found the gear Richard wanted. He picked up the things gingerly, half expecting them to fall apart in his hands. Rachel watched on silently, having now moved away from the trunk and sitting against the wall.

"I remember my dad, he always used to take me out in the yard and throw this around with me," Richard murmured as moved the old football from one hand to the other. "Mum used to complain that he kept me out there too long past my bedtime, but we'd always just laugh it off." Rachel stayed silent, only watching as her brother drifted in nostalgia.

After a while, Richard came back to reality. He breathed in and shook his head. "I can't," he whispered, "I can't use these."

Rachel nodded, "Okay." They started to pack things back into the trunk. Rachel picked up the football put it in Rich's hands. "Don't put it back in," her gaze held his, "you should keep it."

Dick raised an eyebrow. "This coming from the person who always says we should keep the past _in _the past. Why do you think I should keep it anyway?"

"Well for one, it would be a waste of time going through this box if you're going to put it all back in there," Rachel deadpanned, "and two…" She looked at the ball in Richard's hands, "holding that ball gave you good memories, right?" Richard didn't say anything. "You should keep the good memories, instead of the bad ones all the time."

"Since when did my sister become so wise?" Dick smirked as he started to pack things back into the trunk. He picked up a white, finely decorated box and showed it to Rachel. "What's in here?" he asked, beginning to open the box.

Rachel's hand slammed down on top of the lid. "Rich," she warned.

"You were just saying how we should keep the good memories-" She snatched the box out of his hands and dropped it into the trunk. Feeling his stare from behind her, she turned around and faced him.

"It's not a memory," she said, "not mine, anyway. And even if it was, it wouldn't be a good one."

Richard looked around the pile of things. "There's got to be something here that holds a good memory from your old house."

"I don't _have_ any good memories from that house. I don't _have_ any good memories."

Richard quirked an eyebrow. "You're saying that you've never had any good memories from living with us either?" Rachel sighed.

"You know what I mean."

"Rachel, _everyone_ has at _least_ one good time in their life. Even people as angsty as you."

"Look," Rachel sighed, "I remember two good things that happened to me before I was adopted by Bruce. Neither of them were in that house." She looked down at her black painted nails. "The first was getting my first book, when I was four, from the nanny Miss Azar. I wasn't even able to read then, but as soon as I got it I ran to the park and spent the whole day and half the night pretending to read it."

Richard chuckled. "How long were you 'reading' for?" Rachel laid down on her back and looked up at the ceiling.

"I think it was around midnight when mum found me and took me back to the house. I didn't know that you weren't able to read in the dark, so when she found me, she knew I was faking. But still," she narrowed her eyes, "even though I didn't even know what the story was about, sitting in that park for hours imagining it was the best thing that I felt in my whole childhood."

"What was the other good moment before you came here?" Richard asked softly.

"Finding out my father was dead." Richard stared at her, his icy blue eyes wide in shock. "But that happiness went away when they told me the whole story, and that my mum was dead too." She shrugged. "I sort of knew it was coming though. Mum had brought it up plenty of times, and vice-versa. I wasn't shocked that it happened, just surprised they didn't tell me about it when it did."

"How are you surprised that they didn't tell you?" Richard stroked the ball in his hand. "Who would tell their eleven year old kid something like that?"

"My family wasn't exactly the normal type. My father always told me what he was going to do to mum before he did it, and half the time he made me watch." She looked over at Richard. "He never punished me if I misbehaved; he just showed me what would happen to me if I did."

Richard sat still, lost in thought, as Rachel shook herself and sat up. "Great job, Dick-head," she said sarcastically. "For someone who hates me talking about morbid and twisted subjects, you sure know how to bring it up."

"Sorry." Rachel shrugged to say 'it's okay' and continued repacking the trunk.

The room was silent as they repacked the trunk, putting everything back in its exact place. As they went through the pile at the side of the room, Richard found a thick hardback book with the label 'Grimm's fairy tales'. He took a quick peek inside the front cover, and, as he expected, he saw a small note written in scrawly handwriting.

_Happy 4__th__ birthday Rachel._

_May this book be the first of many to take you to countless worlds and feed your imagination._

_Ruth Azar_

"Put it down." Richard jumped and swore as he noticed Rachel glaring at him. He gave her the book and she proceeded to put it straight into the trunk.

"I took something," Rich said, "You should too." Rachel answered by continuing to glare at him.

"It would be a waste of time going through this box if you're not going to take anything from it," Richard added, using her own words against her, "and you should keep the good memories, not the bad ones all the time."

"Besides," He ignored the death stare he was getting and went on, "you've been complaining for days how you haven't had anything to read, and it's kind of annoying."

Rachel grabbed the book out of the trunk. "Fine." Almost everything was in the trunk, except for a few photo albums from Rich's family. He was putting them back in when the top few slipped and spilled paper on the floor. "Shit." Richard muttered and went to pick them up, but froze as his eyes caught a newspaper article.

_Couple Murdered In Zucco/Police Showdown_

Rachel's eyes widened when she saw what Rich was reading and she rushed over and pulled the paper out of his view. She quickly threw everything else back into the box and locked it shut, before tugging on Richard's arm and pulling him to his feet.

"Let's get out of here," she said quickly and Richard nodded slowly, still looking vacant. She picked up the book and football, and glanced at the trunk before pulling herself and Richard out of the room.

oOo

There was an old barn not too far out from the Wayne property that Rachel had found shortly after they arrived on the farm. It was abandoned and empty, with only a few small piles of hay lying around, and was the perfect place to be alone. She had come around a few times over the past two weeks to write, draw or just be alone.

As she squeezed in through the barn doors, she was greeted by a sooty black cat that had made his home inside the barn. He rubbed up against her legs and she gave him a soft stroke before sitting down and opening the book she had taken from the trunk.

As she went through the pages she began to realise how long it had been since she had read the book. It had never been written for younger kids to read, being full of Grimm's original, uncensored fairytales, and she remembered she often had to get Ms Azar to read it for her.

A lot of things in her childhood had been uncensored.

The barn cat made a bed on her feet as she began reading the first story, 'Sweetheart Roland', the story of a maiden and her lover using magic to help escape her witch stepmother after causing the death of the witch's real daughter. After causing the death of the witch the maiden turned herself into a rock while her lover went off to talk to his parents, but he soon forgot about her when he was introduced to another woman by his parents.

Funny how stories can relate to real life sometimes.

She was brought back into reality when the cat moved from her feet and padded towards the barn doors to greet another visitor. Rachel suppressed a groan of frustration as Gar walked in. He knelt down and scratched the cat's chin gently, and Rachel watched his face grow tender as he pulled out a can of tuna and pour it into a bowl.

It was then he looked up and met Rachel's eyes. He looked surprised for a moment, but his infamous grin soon appeared as Rachel hastily put the book back in front of her face.

"I always knew you were checking me out." Rachel didn't answer, willing her blushing cheeks to go back to normal. "Not that I blame you though, most ladies can't get enough of this." She rolled her eyes and her blush disappeared as she put down her book and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you always so confident of yourself?" Gar looked thoughtful and instantly Rachel regretted asking. She asked something else before he could answer. "What are you doing here?"

"You can't tell me to leave," he said, reading her mind, "because technically this is my property." She looked up at him. "Well, it isn't my property but I was here first," He corrected himself. Rachel stood up and was about to leave when he stepped in front of her.

"Wait. You don't have to go," he said, "Jesus Rae, I was only joking. You can come here whenever you want. I only came here to feed Coal."

"Coal?" Gar gestured to the cat, which was now pawing at his leg. He walked towards the back of the barn and, against her better judgement, Rachel followed him.

"He belongs to an old man who owns this barn. They guy went into a nursing home not long ago and asked me to look after Coal for him."

"Why did he ask you?" Rachel looked at him. He definitely didn't seem to be the type to do charity for an old man.

"I love animals." Rachel quirked an eyebrow. That surprised even her. "I had been begging Steve and Rita for a pet for ages, but Steve isn't exactly an animal person."

As they rounded a corner Rachel caught a faint whiff of poo. Gar smiled at her as she wrinkled her nose. "You might want to stay back here." He disappeared for a moment and Rachel sat down on beam next to Coal.

"I can understand why you came to the barn," Gar spoke out from around the corner, "It's great for chilling out, and no-one ever expects to find you here. I spend heaps of time here whenever I'm pissed at Steve. It's the second best place in Jump."

"Second best?" Gar came back from around the corner and sat of a beam opposite Rachel.

"I might show you the best sometime. If you're really nice to me." Rachel didn't look impressed, and he grinned. "Other than that though, this town's pretty much a blowout. It's not too bad, if you like green." Rachel smiled slightly, as Gar got a thoughtful look on his face. "And trees, and long grass, and hills, and…" Rachel couldn't help herself, and laughed. Only very softly, but still Gar noticed. He looked at her, surprised.

"Did you just laugh?" He asked.

"No."

"Are you smiling?"

"No."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are! And you laughed too! I know you did!"

"I did not."

"You look cute when you smile."

"Alright. This conversation is over." She stood up and went to walk out.

"What?" Gar followed her. "Can't I compliment a girl that I think is cute?"

"Goodbye Gar." She moved quickly out through the barn doors, ignoring Coal, who wanted a farewell pat.

"You look cute when you blush too!" Gar yelled after her and her hands went straight to her cheeks. She was blushing? "I'll see you at school tomorrow! And I'm going to make sure I get you to smile again!"

"No you won't!"

oOo

Richard walked into his room and put his father's football on his desk. To take his mind off the article that fell out of the trunk, he had tried to watch TV, do some chores, homework, but still the heading was lingering in his mind. He turned on his laptop to check his emails, and saw among a few new ones, one from the school. He opened it and scrolled down.

_**Junior/Senior Combined Prom**_

_**Two weeks from next Friday**_

_**Theme: "Masquerade"**_

_**Bring your dates, dresses and tuxes.**_

_**For more info check out the flyers around school or ask the prom committee.**_

His phone was vibrating and he saw that he had a text message from Vic. He opened it and as he expected, it was about the prom.

_Hey man. Prom comin up. Prepare 2 b bombarded by chics (+ mayb some guys) on mon wantin 2 b ur date. Hav fun choosin. Hope u dnt get attacked by the 1's u reject._

Dick raised his eyebrows. "Great," he sighed.

_Okay. Popularity – not overrated. People just fail to mention sometimes how insane it can be._

_OoO_

**Funny. After writing this, barns are among my favourite places to hang out in.**

**Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up in the two weeks, but after that it'll be a while for chapter five, with my yearlies, work placement and then my big trip. And then there's my dumb idea of going for school captain.**

**Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Please review!**


	4. Big Steps

**Yeah you can say it - about effin time! I know I'm sorry. A bit shorter than the last few (sorry sorry sorry) **

**Disclaimer: I DON'T own Teen Titans, but the little Larry dude was named after my gold(actually black)fish, Larry - (okay so it's really the other way round, but suspend belief for a little bit)**

**oOo**

**Big Steps (Well Aren't We Getting Bold?)**

_Gar_

_Friendship is a funny thing. You can hang around a group of people during school and stuff, and tell people that they're your friends without a second thought. But when you take the time to think, think hard about it, are they really your friends? Or are they just convenient people that you hang around with? What do ya call 'em? Acquaintances, that's it. Are they your friends or acquaintances?_

_It's so easy when you're a little kid. You always know who's your friend, who's your best friend and who's just a random that you can play with. But once you get older, it's so hard to figure out who really is your friend. And who's just pretending to be so they can get the perks that come with your friendship._

The prom was all the buzz.

As it was with every other year, there were flyers tacked all over the school. Juniors and seniors were talking about their dresses or their dates, freshmen were watching them, dreaming about their prom, and the sophomores just acted like they didn't care, when really, they couldn't wait for their turn.

Gar happened to be in a group of sophomores that _really_ didn't care, and went on about how lame prom was anyway and they wouldn't go even if it was their turn, so he decided to keep the plan that he had thought up in class to himself.

He also kept to himself, the feeling of disappointment he was getting when he looked at his 'friends'. Ever since the events of the year before, they had all become distant from each other, especially from him. They were more concerned about where to get pot or whether they should smoke at the skate park, rather than creating a big plan to crash the prom. When it came to the attitudes of the different years in the school, Gar felt that he had definitely been born two years too late.

It was because of this disappointment towards the people in his friend group, that he decided to focus all of his attention upon Rachel. It was a few times now that they had met in the barn, and even though she spent all of her time reading and ignoring him, they had been the best times that Gar had had in the whole year so far.

He didn't know why she interested him so much. She was just so…weird. So different from everyone else he knew. She didn't care what anyone thought of her, nor did she ever feel the need to have a conversation, unlike him.

And she was _always reading_. She didn't ever stop. She was reading as she walked into the barn, reading while sitting down in the barn with Coal curling up at her feet and Gar himself swinging on the rafters, and reading when she walked out and back to her house. Gar had commented on it one day.

"Do you ever stop reading?" He had said, while lying on a pile of hay.

"Yes," She had replied, not looking up from her book, "Sometimes I stop and I write, draw or listen to music instead."

"Don't you ever get bored?"

"I'm not you." She gave him a sidewards glance. "So no."

"But all you're doing all the time is looking at some words on paper and-" She quickly cut him off.

"Did you know that in the Grimm version of Cinderella there is no fairy godmother? It's actually the spirit of her mother and a tree that make her wishes come true with the help of two doves." She spilled out, eyes still focussed on her book.

That was another thing Gar had found out about Rachel. She had perfected the talent of conversation-killing, and had almost perfected the talent of scaring-someone-so-much-that-they-crap-their-pants-and-never-talk-to-you-again. The latter talent was an almost, because she had failed to get rid of Gar. He wasn't planning on giving her a break, not until he got her a) to smile, or b) to laugh as she had the first time in the barn.

He passed her at her locker on his way to ancient history and flashed her his infamous grin. Any other girl would have smiled back, or giggled nervously, or just simply melted at Garfield Dayton grinning at them (that's what he liked to think anyway), but not Rachel. She instead rolled her eyes at him and continued going through her locker. Gar chuckled at her annoyance and kept walking.

When he got to his class, he stopped at the door and waited as everyone else filed in. As soon as he saw Rachel walk through the door, he followed her and sat down in the empty seat next to where she was. She slid her eyes towards him calmly and sighed.

"What do want Gar?"

"Just a place to sit," he said simply, and she shook her head.

"Don't you have friends in our year to sit with instead?" Gar nodded.

"Well actually, I've been thinking about that, and I've come to the conclusion that yes, I do have _one_ friend in my year to sit with, and you're it." He opened his book and Rachel frowned, trying to understand what he'd just said. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again once the teacher started talking.

Gar faced the front and tried to listen to the lesson, feeling Rachel's eyes on him the whole time.

oOo

Dick was quickly beginning to hate prom.

And it was still over two weeks away.

It was now lunchtime on Thursday, with still fifteen-and-a-half days left before the night of prom, and already he had been asked by nine different people, one of them Kitty (luckily Fang hadn't heard about that though), and he had rejected each and every one of them.

"You've got to say yes to someone man," Vic had found him hiding near classroom block C; "You'll have to end up taking someone."

"That's easy for you to say, you have a girlfriend. Everyone knows you're taken." Dick grumbled.

"Just come out on the oval with us Dick. Don't worry. You're not the only one who's having problems with crazy fangirls. Last time I checked, Garth was too." Vic chuckled. "Wally's actually jealous of you. They've been coming to you first then going to him."

"He can have them," Dick said, "He can have them _all_. I don't even want to go to prom."

Vic raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that there isn't one girl in the whole school that you don't want to take to prom?" Dick thought about Mandy, the way she smiled when she was amused, and the way she had stroked his arm that morning before school. Vic saw his expression and nodded. "I didn't think so. Come on, everyone would have calmed down by now anyway." He pulled Dick up and dragged him away from the classrooms and up to the oval.

Unfortunately, Vic had underestimated the power of the 'needing-a-hot-date-for-prom' syndrome, and how many girls in the junior and senior classes thought Dick fitted their ideals. Half a dozen prom-obsessed teenagers were waiting for them on the oval, and as soon as they saw Dick, they rushed over.

"Great," Dick muttered and glared up at Vic, who was looking at him sheepishly.

"Well man, hope y'all have fun," he grinned, before backing away through the crowd and walking up to the others.

Dick fumed where he was standing as the surrounding girls fawned over him. "Okay, okay," he raised his hands to defend himself, "you girls are all great, really, and I'm sure you'll all be great partners for the prom, but I am…" he quickly thought up of something, "kinda already going with someone else."

He never thought that six girls could gasp simultaneously, but apparently they could. As five of the girls were pushed into stunned silence, Kitty (yes – she was one of those girls – still trying to get Dick) narrowed her eyes and sneered.

"Who is she?" She edged closer to Richard. "What does she have that we don't?" She was now right in front of his face, and had stared poking his chest. "Come on, Dickie-poo. Tell us who she is."

"It's me." They all whirled around at Mandy walking towards them. She sidled up to Dick and slid her hand in his. "He asked me and I said yes," her eyes narrowed, "anyone have a problem with that?" The other girls quickly walked away, Kitty pouting at Mandy before she did so. Mandy pulled Dick away, "Let's get out of here fast," she breathed in his ear and he followed her around the back of the industrial block.

"Thanks for the save," Dick said to her as she pulled her hand away and walked towards one of the doors.

"Vic said you were having a little trouble with adoring fangirls, but no-one was polite enough to try and step in," she shook her head. "Pussies."

She turned the knob on the door and pushed it open to reveal a wood storeroom. She gestured for him to come in and closed the door behind them. Inside the room it was dark, and naturally, it smelt like wood.

"So," she said in the dark, "you don't have a date for the prom yet?"

Dick smiled. "There's one girl I want to ask but I just haven't got around to it yet."

"You really shouldn't keep a girl waiting Dick. She could be hiding somewhere, waiting for you to go over and ask her and dreaming about the day you finally will."

"Actually I'm pretty sure she just flirting with me in a _very_ small room right now."

"Feeling a bit uncomfortable are we?" She was now standing right in front of him.

"Actually, no." They leant in closer to each other. "Come to prom with me," he whispered.

"What if I'm already going with someone?"

Good point. "And who would that be?"

In the dim light, he could see her smirk. "What did I just tell Kitty and the girls?"

Dick closed his eyes and leant in towards her, but was stopped by the tips of her fingers on his lips. She ran her index finger across his bottom lip. "Save it for the night," she breathed.

oOo

The news that Mandy Tam'ran and Dick Grayson were going to prom together spread like wildfire. All the girls backed off completely as soon as they heard the news. Vic had slapped Dick on the back when he'd heard, and grinned.

"Didn't I tell you so?"

He walked into math after lunch, smiling. Mr Pots frowned at the obvious lack of disappointment from one of his students, before shaking his head and turning towards the board.

Mr Pots wasn't the only one who noticed Dick's happier attitude, and he received a note shortly into the period.

_**Might I ask what has made you so happy?**_

Dick smiled and wrote back to her.

**I have a date for the prom.**

Kori felt a flicker or sadness, but quickly masked it. She smiled at him and replied.

_**That's great! Congratulations! Who are you going with?**_

**Mandy Tam'ran.**

As soon as she saw her sister's name on the scrap of paper, Kori felt as if a thousand bricks had dropped on her heart.

_**Well I hope you have a great time.**_

**Thanks. Are you going as well?**

oOo

"No."

Rachel spoke from her book. "So you're just going to give up and let your sister and the biggest bitch in the school take out the guy you like?"

"…"

"Well, have fun with that."

Kori looked up at her. "Why don't you say something to Richard?"

"Why would I want to?"

"Because he could get heartbroken. You could warn him about-"

"About what?" Rachel closed her book and stared up at Kori. "What I say won't make a difference to what his opinion of Mandy is." Kori looked down at her hands as Rachel continued. "I don't like the fact that he's going out with Mandy either, but he is, and I highly doubt that he'll change his mind just because I don't like her."

"But," Kori whispered, "She could hurt him. What happens if she does something to him and breaks his heart?"

"Rich is a big boy Kori, he can look after himself and doesn't need me to watch out for him. Besides," she shrugged and opened up her book, "if he does get a 'broken heart' or whatever, it's his own fault and he'll learn from it next time."

"Don't you even care?"

"This coming from the person who won't go to prom just because he's taken." Rachel glanced up calmly. "You don't get to tell me off for standing by and letting this happen. You're doing the exact same thing."

Kori looked down. "You're right. I'm sorry." Rachel shrugged. "I just hope he figures it out before Mandy hurts him."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Kori," she said, "He's a guy. He won't figure it out."

"But Richard is different, he's smarter than that."

"No," Rachel shook her head, "He really isn't. He's just like all the other teenage boys in the world. Really, _really_ dumb."

OoO

Mandy came up to Dick after last period and grabbed him from behind. "We're having drinks at Vic's house," she breathed in his ear. "Come on, it'll be fun."

Dick looked at the dark-haired girl clutching his waist, and everything else melted away. "Sure. Why not?"

Mandy smiled flirtingly. "Excellent. Some of the guys need a ride."

"Does that include you?"

"Of course it does."

Dick grinned. "I'll bring the car around then." Mandy let go of him and he made his way to the carpark, almost running.

He arrived in front of his car grinning, but his grin faded when he noticed Rachel sitting on the bonnet. "Oh shit." He mumbled.

"What?" His sister looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Just forgot a little something."

"And that would be?"

"Umm…you."

Rachel now had both eyebrows raised. "Huh. Well that makes me feel loved," she said sarcastically. Richard looked around trying to figure out what to do. "What's the big deal anyway?"

Dick sighed. "I was going to go to Vic's house.''

"Fine. Give me the keys and get a lift." Dick looked at her exasperatedly.

"I'm supposed to be _giving_ lifts. Besides, you don't have your licence anyway."

She thought for a moment. "Well. You're pretty screwed."

"No shit, Sherlock." He leant against the bonnet and kicked at the ground. "Do ya think you could call Alfred?"

"Do you think he'd answer?"

Richard frowned at the ground. Probably not. And Bruce wasn't in town that week. He ran over his mind for a solution when it slapped him in the face.

"Wait here a sec." He dashed over to the other side of the carpark.

As he came back, Rachel groaned. "You've got to be kidding me," she murmured, as she watched Dick walk over to her with a certain blonde-haired, green-eyed guy.

"Hi Rae!" Gar grinned as he came over. His overbearing cheeriness made her want to throw up. "Dick said you needed a lift."

"Yeah…" Rachel looked over at her brother with murder in her eyes. "Something like that."

"Sweet! Well, not so much for you but…heh…"

Rachel rolled her eyes and slid off the car bonnet. "We going then?"

"Uh, yeah! My car's just this way." He walked off and Rachel, before following him, leant over to Dick.

"You," she hissed, "Owe me."

Dick grinned sheepishly at her. "Have fun," he murmured to her as she walked away, flipping him the bird over her shoulder. Dick, trying to contain himself, got into the car, backed out from the park and sped off to pick up Mandy (and of course, the other people).

oOo

The ride home, to say simply, was long. It didn't help that Gar insisted on going the speed limit, and Rachel had a feeling that by the time she got home, she would be pounding her head on the dashboard.

Surprisingly, Gar didn't talk much, so that at least saved Rachel from having to refrain from killing him. Although, the silence that was left behind was starting to make them both uncomfortable.

Just when it was at the point of being unbearable, Gar spoke up. "So is your brother going to prom?"

Rachel shrugged. "Don't know," she mumbled, "Don't really care." The silence continued until Rachel sighed. "Apparently the news around school is that he's going with Mandy Tam'ran."

Gar winced. "What?" she asked.

"Don't get me wrong," he looked over at Rachel, "Mandy is _hot_," She rolled her eyes, "But seriously, she's kind of a mega-bitch."

Rachel frowned at him disbelievingly. "Wow." She said simply. "There is actually a type of guy with a brain that doesn't completely rely on his dick." Gar laughed.

"That's a good one," he chuckled, "I know quite a few guys who would hate to hear that."

He stopped laughing and grinned at her. "So are _you_ going to prom?"

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Um, in case you didn't get the memo," she said, "It's a _junior and senior prom_."

"So?"

"Did you hear the word sophomore in there?"

"Nope."

"Then what makes you think I would be going?"

"Well Rae," he said simply, "There's this thing called _prom-crashing_. Kinda like party-crashing, but a whole lot cooler and with a whole lot more risks."

"Right…and I'm guessing this is something you and your friends are up to, correct?"

"Well, yeah," He glanced over at her, "That's if my _friend_ will come with me." Rachel rolled her eyes. "C'mon Rae. The theme is _masquerade_. They're just asking for a couple of crazy sophomores to come and crash it."

"C'mon. It'll be fun."

Rachel looked down at her hands. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to say no. I'm not interested," her eyes flicked up to him, "Sorry Gar." He pulled up in front of her house and she got out of the car.

She began to walk to the door when his voice stopped her. "Hey Rae! If you ever change your mind, just call me." He grinned and drove off.

"Not likely," she murmured.

_Yep. Easily one of the most complicated things in life. Not the most complicated though, that would probably be love._

_**oOo**_

**Lol. While writing the Dick/Mandy interaction I actually started to like them as a couple (Ahh!)**

**Okay...so this is going to be the last chapter for a few weels (*ducks under table*) UNLESS! I steal some internet from overseas (do Maccas in Europe have free Wi-Fi?)**

**Lastly - a question for my American readers (although I thinks thats pretty much all of you). Why is prom such a big deal? I mean, I would think that the afterparties (if you have them) would be a lot more cooler**


	5. Preparations, Preparations

**Damn, it's about time I updated this. Really sorry guys.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it. **

**oOo**

**Preparations, Preparations (What the hell happened to McDonald's parties?)**

_Kori_

_Love. It's one of the most significant, one of the most life changing, beautiful, amazing, untainted moments of your life. You see someone, they see you, you both fall in love, tell each other with ease, get married and live happily ever after. That's how it supposed to be. Maybe that's how it is. Maybe I just missed out on that._

_Mandy seems to have got it easy. That's good for her at least. I'm sure her and Richard would make a wonderful couple. I'm happy for her. I really am._

_I just wish I could be happy for myself too._

oOo

"Kori! Be a dear and grab my bag for me, will you?" Mandy yelled from the bathroom. Almost immediately her purse was place on the bench next to her as she slid on eyeliner.

"Wonderful," she gestured towards four mini bottles of vodka. "Put those inside there for me."

Kori's mouth gaped open. "You can't take those to prom. Where did you even-" Mandy looked at her coldly.

"How about you ask less questions and get on with putting them in. Now." Kori shut her mouth and ducked her head, piling the glass bottles in carefully. Mandy continued applying makeup, now putting on a bright red lipstick. "There's a load of dishes that need doing, and you might want to cook up some more meals for the freezer, we're running low.

"I won't be coming back tonight; you know the things you need to do. Don't bother trying to waste your time doing anything else." Mandy looked up at Kori and put on a sweet, sickly voice. "You wouldn't want to make Mum and Dad unhappy now, would you?" Kori looked away sorrowfully as Mandy shoved some last minute things in her handbag before bending down to put on a pair of red stilettos.

Kori glanced at the clock. 4:14pm. "You're going already? There are still three more hours."

"Little sister," Mandy sighed, "Do you really think that parties always start on time?" She swung her bag over her shoulder and walked out the front door. She jumped into a car that was waiting out the front and it sped off, tyres squealing.

Kori sighed and sat down in front of the bench. A vibration from her phone brought her attention sideways. She flipped it open and looked at the screen. _New message from Rachel._

_Where have you been? I know you want to get yourself away from this prom thing but seriously? Where are you?_

Kori sighed and closed the message. She had called in sick from school all week, trying to get herself away from the memory of the upcoming prom.

But you can't escape anything if you're trying to.

oOo

Dick frowned in the mirror as he fiddled with his tie. He pulled the tie off in frustration and ran his hands through his hair. "Rachel!"

He threw the tie on the bench as Rachel was walking in. She raised an eyebrow at him, studying him up and down.

She leaned against the door. "I hope you didn't call me in here expecting me to know how to do a tie, because I don't."

"You don't?"

She frowned. "I'm a girl. Why would I?"

That was a good point. Why was it that girls always knew how to tie ties in movies then?

Rachel walked into the bathroom and picked up the mask on the bench. She raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?" Dick grabbed it off her.

"It's called a masquerade for a reason you know."

Rachel continued to look at the mask in Richard's hand, shaking her head. "Kill me if I ever decide to stoop that low."

"Remind me to." Dick sighed and picked up the tie from the bench. "Any suggestions?" He held it in front of him. Rachel shrugged and folded her arms.

"I suggest you ditch the tie, but then again, I also suggest you ditch the prom, so,"

"So basically you're no help to me at all."

Rachel nodded, "basically." Dick shook his head and faced the mirror. "I'll send up Bruce or Alfred." Rachel said, walking out of the room. Dick didn't answer.

To say it simply, he was freaking out. This was his first prom, his first date, ever, and he was scared shitless of how it was going to go. Vic had given him the lowdown of the night the day before. It was to start at Vic's house, with only a few of the guys and girls in the group of juniors and senior. That was where they were all going to have a few starter drinks and prepare for a big entrance at the prom. Then of course, it was the prom itself, followed by the after party for everyone, and the V.I.P. after-after party after that.

"Christ, four parties," Dick sighed, running his hands through his hair. It was going to be a long, long night, pun intended.

oOo

The doorbell rang around four-thirty; Rachel raised an eyebrow at the time and walked out to open it. She squinted her eyes as she opened the door, facing a very bright, very red Mandy.

She was standing at the door in a seductive pose, one hand leaning on the doorpost, the other on her hip. Rachel snorted. "So which one of the boys called a hooker?" She folded her eyes and glared at Mandy. Mandy, seeing who it was, moved from her position and mirrored the other girl.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Little Miss Gothica…" Mandy sneered, "What are you doing here?"

"I live here," Rachel deadpanned, "Obviously." She looked Mandy up and down. "I'd ask what you're doing here, but I don't think I need to." She shook her head. "Wow. I knew Richard was pretty dumb but I had no idea he was stupid enough to fall for you."

"Look," Mandy let herself in and slammed the door behind her, "whether you like me or not doesn't really matter, bitch. Because you know what? Dick does." She circled around while Rachel looked up at her with a bored expression on her face. "And nothing you say to him is going to be able to change that. So how about you start dealing with it, hmm?"

"Sorry Mandy, but not everyone's like your sister." Mandy whirled around and glared at Rachel, who stared back at her calmly. "I don't bow down and take orders from anyone, especially you." She moved to walk away, leaving Mandy shocked and seething.

"By the way," She turned around and looked again at Mandy's dress. "If you really think Dick is going to completely fall for you while you've got the whole slut act going, you're so out of it. He may be stupid, but he's not a complete and utter idiot."

Mandy opened her mouth to say something in return but stopped herself and the mentioned boy walked in. He gaped at Mandy, wearing a bright red dress down to her ankles, with a conveniently placed slit that went all the way up to her hip on one side of the dress. Bright red stilettos were on her feet and her black hair was piled up into a high bun, with perfectly curled strands hanging down. The final piece was her mask, an ornate crimson piece, with silver and black feathers on one side.

"Whoa…" Dick breathed. Mandy smiled and walked up to him. She ran a finger down the slope of his nose, over his lips, chin and down the centre of his chest.

"Gag." They both turn to Rachel, who was looking disgusted at them. Mandy sneered at her while Dick gave her an annoyed look. Rachel shrugged. "I'm not going out of my way to leave for you two." Dick shook his head and faced Mandy.

"Give me ten seconds," he said to her. She smiled.

"I'll be in the car." Dick grinned and stepped into the lounge room to grab his mask. As he came back into the front room to put on his shoes, Rachel spoke up.

"So why are you going out with her?" She was glaring at the closed door. "Out of all the girls you could have picked, why her?"

Dick frowned. "I like her. Why wouldn't I go out with her?"

"Uh, cos she's a bitch."

"Rach." Dick stood up and moved to the door. "You don't even know her. Quit judging books by their covers for once." He walked out the door and slammed, leaving Rachel to glare at the door even harder. She moved up to the window beside it and watched as Richard jumped into a pink limo out the front with Mandy, Kitty and Fang already inside it. She narrowed her eyes, thinking, as the car sped out of the drive, raising dust and smoke from its tires. As it disappeared from sight, Rachel sighed.

"Screw it," she hissed, pulling her phone from her pocket. She walked upstairs as she searched through her phonebook and pressed 'call'. As she stepped into Dick's room, the phone picked up.

"_Good afternoon, you have reached the lair of the Beast. I am available Friday and Saturday nights nine till one for half hour phone sessions. Please make bookings two weeks in advance to ensure you get a taste of the Beast…_"

"Um, Garfield?" There was a thump in the background and the unmistakable sound of someone swearing.

"_Shit! Uh, Rachel, hi, um…_" She raised an eyebrow, "_what's up?_"

"What the hell was that?"

"_Heh,_" As he talked, Rachel went to Richard's desk and started looking through his drawers. "_Just something that I was dared to do by Vic. Um…yeah, sorry bout that._"

"Right…" She couldn't find anything in the drawers and started rummaging through the numerous papers and books on his desk.

"_Yeah…so um, you called. What do you need?_"

Rachel looked up at the roof and bit her lip. "Is it too late to accept your offer?"

She could hear the grin in his voice. "_It's never too late. Want me to pick you up?_"

She finally found it on a sticky note stuck to his keyboard. She pulled it off and grabbed the car keys on his bed. "No, I can drive. It's just…"

"_Just what?_"

She looked at the messy scrawl on the sticky note. "There's a catch."

oOo

Dick stepped out of Kitty's limousine as the said girl was screaming at her driver. He was quickly followed by Mandy and Fang, who was rubbing his temple, seriously regretting his date.

Vic was already waiting at the door for them with a wide grin on his face. He slapped the boys on the backs as they walked in but he didn't even try to approach the girls. He knew better than to mess up the dresses and hairdos. Doing such a thing would be a crime punishable with death.

They walked inside as Kitty shouted one last order at her driver to 'stay the hell where he was' until they were ready to leave. Vic explained that his parents were leaving him the house for the weekend, provided that it was still standing when they got back. As they stepped into the large dwelling they were greeted with music and the faint smell of beer.

They sat down around the living room and Fang immediately got out a pack of smokes and a lighter. He started to light up when Vic shook his head.

"Man, you know the rules. You wanna smoke, you go outside." He gestured to the glass door and Fang rolled his eyes before obliging. Dick leant back on his chair and waited for something to happen.

He was expecting a huge crazy party. One like in the movies; flashing lights, pounding music, smoke and drunk people stumbling over everywhere. A party where teenagers were making out in every corner and food was being thrown onto the roof. But this was nothing like that. It was basically sitting down and talking, listening to Vic's music while the girls gossiped and the guys just talked about the first things that came up in their heads. To Dick it just seemed like a normal lunchtime at school, except with fancy clothes and alcohol.

Vic handed out the first round of beers and cruisers from a large esky in the kitchen. Dick passed, the others clinked their bottles and drank up. Kitty mentioned vodka and Mandy patted her bag, smirking.

"The vodka's for later, Kit. You know that."

Dick didn't say anything, stayed silent as the conversation whirled around him. One thing he didn't want to bring up was why he wasn't drinking. Bruce had pummelled into him for years how "alcohol is really bad for you and if you start you can't stop and then you're screwed", but that reason seemed pretty pathetic to tell the others, so he didn't bring it up, and hoped that no-one else would.

Yeah right.

Mandy pushed herself up from her chair and, after grabbing a beer from the esky, walked over to where Dick was sitting. "Don't tell me that you don't drink." She leant close to him and he could smell the raspberry flavour on her breath. "That would be disappointing."

Dick could feel the eyes of everyone in the room fall onto him. "Just figured I'd give you all a head start," he shrugged. Mandy held out the beer to him.

"You've got to start somewhere, Dick." He just looked at the bottle. "Come on."

His eyes flitted around from the bottle to Mandy to everyone else and back to Mandy. She smiled and gestured for him to take the bottle, and, with everything else flying out of his brain, he did.

oOo

Kori wiped her hands on the legs of her jeans as she finished piling clean dishes into the cupboard. She had finally finished washing the dishes. There was just everything else to do.

She looked around and sighed at the state the house was in. Mandy had taken the courtesy upon herself to make a giant mess for Kori, including writing a long list of things that Kori had to do by the next day.

Kori told herself that she didn't want to go to prom. She reasoned that it was just going to be lame anyway. But as hard as she tried to trick herself that it was no big deal, she couldn't help but feel upset at the loss of possibly one of the biggest moments of her life.

She grabbed the broom and began to sweep when she heard the sound of tyres squealing up the driveway. She paused her sweeping as a car door slammed and someone knocked on the door.

As she opened it, Rachel stood in the doorway. Kori frowned, confused. She had never told Rachel where she lived (and even if she had she would have never expected Rachel to come over anyway) so the fact that she was standing at her front door was surprising.

Rachel smirked. "Get your stuff and get in the car. You're going to prom." Kori sighed and let her in. She picked up the broom as Rachel raised an eyebrow at her. "Not exactly the reaction I was expecting…" she muttered.

"I can't go," Kori avoided looking at Rachel, "I'm not allowed." Rachel frowned.

"Kori, you're sixteen – I mean, you are sixteen, are you? Because you're acting like a ten year old at the moment." She folded her arms. "Quit letting your sister rule your life."

Kori's eyes moved around the room, looking at everything but Rachel. "She does not rule me," she said unconvincingly. "I just have a lot to do."

Rachel glanced around at the room. "Let me guess…Mandy decided that you needed things to do so you wouldn't decide to go to prom?" Kori didn't answer. "Let her clean up her own crap, Kori."

Kori closed her eyes. "I can't. I have to clean it up."

"God, you're as pathetic as Cinderella." Kori looked at her, affronted. Sure, Rachel had always been blunt when came to the truth, but she had never outright insulted Kori before. "Why do you let her control you? Why would you ever, let anyone control you?" Kori turned away from her and focussed on sweeping the floor.

"Kori. Why are you doing this for her?"

Kori stared down at the floor. "My parents died in a car accident a few years ago. They weren't supposed to be driving though. The only reason they did was because I wanted them to pick me up from a sleepover party. If I hadn't have gotten scared, and if I didn't call them that night, then they would still be alive." She looked up at Rachel, expecting a look of shock, possibly pity, or maybe disgust, but Rachel's face was blank. The girl shrugged.

"My mother killed my father, then she killed herself. The night before she did, she told me what she was going to do. So, the next day, instead of telling anyone or calling the cops, I went to the park and spent the whole day there." She said all of this offhandedly, like it was something that was completely normal. "You had no idea that your actions would have caused your parents death, what's my excuse?" Kori just looked at her open-mouthed. This, she hadn't been expecting. By now Rachel had looked away, taking a sudden interest in the couch off to the side of the room. Kori looked down at the broom. "If you don't mind me asking," she whispered, "but why didn't you try to stop it?"

Rachel's eyes flashed up to meet hers. "Because I understood why she needed to so it. It was the only way that she could be free of my father. It was the only way she could stop him from _controlling her_." At that last bit she gave a meaningful glance to Kori. "Not that I'm saying you need to kill your sister, but you've got to free yourself Kori, otherwise…" She frowned. "Otherwise, I don't know. So that's why you're going to go to prom tonight, to free yourself. And also so you can save Dick from the clutches your evil vapid sister." Kori giggled and even Rachel cracked a smile. "Seriously though, drop that broom and get in the car."

Kori laughed. "I don't even have a dress, or a mask, or anything!" Rachel smirked.

"That's already been arranged." Kori followed her out the door and stepped into the passenger seat, and as Rachel pulled out from the driveway onto the street, Kori could feel the invisible piece of string tying her to the chores and housework snap into a thousand pieces.

**oOo**

**I'll try to get better with my updates – promise.**

**Review? 8)**


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